The Frontlines with Jabil's Alicia O'Brien

From The Frontlines · 28:40

Show by Tim Sackett

Your applicant volume is through the roof. Your recruiters are buried. And your plant leaders still have the same question: “Where are my people?”Sound familiar? In this episode of The Frontlines, Tim Sackett sits down with Alicia O’Brien, who leads global talent acquisition operations at Jabil, for a candid conversation about making hiring work when every facility has different needs—and everybody needs talent yesterday. With nearly two decades in TA, Alicia brings a practitioner’s perspective to the challenge of building a global approach that actually works at the local level.Here’s the problem: A process that makes perfect sense at headquarters might fall apart on the manufacturing floor. Alicia shares why listening, visiting facilities, and understanding what local leaders are trying to accomplish are essential to earning trust and driving change. When Cincinnati, Memphis, and Penang face different challenges, standardization takes more than sending everyone the same playbook.Tim and Alicia also tackle the applicant-volume paradox: How can companies have hundreds of applicants and still struggle to hire? If recruiters review the first 25 applications, find a few decent candidates, and move on, who’s sitting in the pile nobody opened? They explore where automation and AI could help teams manage volume, identify talent, and reconnect candidates with other opportunities. Those silver medalists already raised their hands for your company. Why make them start from scratch?The conversation moves into another manufacturing challenge: hiring for work that keeps changing. When new machinery demands experience candidates haven’t had the opportunity to gain, employers have to rethink transferable skills, training, and expectations for day-one productivity. And before candidates can consider those careers, they need to know the employer exists. Tim and Alicia dig into community outreach, employee advocacy, and why even major manufacturers can remain a mystery in their own hometowns.Key takeaways include: Build global consistency with local input. Understand site-level needs before prescribing the process. Stop confusing applicant volume with hiring success. More applications don’t automatically produce better outcomes. Give interested candidates another path. Explore how talent could fit opportunities beyond the original application. Hire for potential—and plan for training. Align operations leaders around what new employees can realistically do on day one. Take candidate fraud seriously. Alicia discusses the questions her team is exploring around policies, verification, and transparency. Keep technology tied to the hiring problem. Focus investment and effort on removing barriers to getting people through the door.Supported by sponsors Workday and Paradox, The Frontlines brings TA leaders closer to the realities of frontline hiring. This episode delivers a reminder every recruiting team can use: Keep the mission clear, understand your business, and make it easier to hire the people who keep it running.

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